I have Shaintar for Savage Worlds which really expanded the fantasy aspect of that system before the Fantasy Toolkit came out. The design and layout was very beautifully done. The full page artwork leading to each chapter just blew me away and I love the black and white sketches peppered throughout the book.

The races (species in FC terminology) go beyond the typical fantasy such as the Brinchie (essentially feline humanoids) and Aevakar (winged folks). I loved that you could play non-standard fantasy playable races such as ogres and goblins. In all there are 11 races.

There are a total of 25 professions (16 of which can be considered base classes in FC terminology, 5 expert classes, and 4 master classes [note: these are rough equivalent translations from my POV]). The 4 latter classes are legendary status in Savage World and really contribute to the epic nature of the setting.

I know many of us forum members here love our gears and Shaintar has a few of them specific to the setting.

Magic is divided into seven forms. They are alchemy, channeling, faith, necromancy, sorcery, thaumaturgy, and the way. In SW, these all fall under the all encompassing terminology: power. SW is an effects based game and every profession picks from the same pool although the effects vary depending on whatever paradigm a setting uses. Also, the type of profession limits one to what forms of power that person is limited to.

Magic items mostly don't follow D&D tropes and therefore it is not meant to be a magic item driven setting. You simply can't just pick up a magic item from a shop. One way of obtaining a magical item is what I would call "spontaneous" magic. Family hairloom or uniquely crafted items "awaken" with new abilities. The other ways of obtaining magical items are through an artificer and of course, the one D&D thing, looting.

The first chapter gives a very broad view of the land, people, and history. The third chapter gives a player a place to begin his journey in Shaintar. It gives you an organization (the Graysons' Grey Rangers) and a more detailed description of the Southern Kingdoms, particularly, the Wildlands.

64 pages is devoted to encounters some of whom have 3 different forms depending on the degree of challenge (ie base, advanced, elite forms).

Those of you who love gimmicks will love the ones that Sean cooked up. Savage fans love their cards and Sean has incorporated the use of it towards the GMing side. One is the MAC system in which you use poker cards layed out in Tarot style to help one brainstorm and focus on a basic skeleton of an adventure (ie the who, what, when, and where). The other is determining magical items and loot using, you guessed it, poker cards. Both were very helpful to me and more importantly, they made the experience much more enjoyable.

Finally, there is the plot point campaign. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is an adventure where to advance the story, you must complete the main plots. What is great about this type of campaign is that there a multitude of side quests. You don't need to complete these to advance the story but they allow you to experience more of the setting and may be a springboard for future adventures. The plot points give you a basic outline of the adventure with the necessary stats for encounters and such. It cuts down on work but leaves enough room for the GM to add his own thing. For the most part, the side quests are usually a bit more bare than the main plot points but this was not the case for this setting. In all there are 21 side quests to extend the campaign.

The only criticism I had of the setting was the map. There was no measure of distance from what I remembered. I hope the rerelease will have a map drawn to scale, legends, and ruler.

I look forward to rerelease of Shaintar and will probably pick up both books (one for SW and FC).

Heh. Well, I'll have to figure a way to justify buying both to my wife...

By the way, these will be offered in hardcover (preferred)/softcover format, right?

I look forward to seeing what you do with the classes. You offered a huge amount in the player's guide. It'll be interesting to see how many make it to the initial release for FC and in what form.

One of the magic, "the way", sounds more like part psionics and part chi power. I wonder if your setting will be the first to incorporate psionics in FC...

Will the map be expanded beyond what was offered in the previous release? Personally, I would like to see an outline of at least the whole continent but if not, I would hope to see more of the continent. I guess I've been spoiled on Forgotten Realms.

Heh. Well, I'll have to figure a way to justify buying both to my wife...

By the way, these will be offered in hardcover (preferred)/softcover format, right?

I look forward to seeing what you do with the classes. You offered a huge amount in the player's guide. It'll be interesting to see how many make it to the initial release for FC and in what form.

One of the magic, "the way", sounds more like part psionics and part chi power. I wonder if your setting will be the first to incorporate psionics in FC...

Will the map be expanded beyond what was offered in the previous release? Personally, I would like to see an outline of at least the whole continent but if not, I would hope to see more of the continent. I guess I've been spoiled on Forgotten Realms.

Will you be including the MAC and plotpoints in the FC version?

They will be offered in both print and pdf. Most likely we値l be going the soft cover route with these, but as they are some time off, we値l have to see how things are at that point.

Other than that, we値l be offering up some other product lines prior to Shaintar: Legends Unleashed for FC, so it痴 too early to say what will be in there. Honestly, I didn稚 expect to start talking about this for quite some time, as we generally play things close to the chest, and, as we致e not even turned one eye towards its development. I expect to get a draft Monday on S:LU for SW; so that takes top priority, I知 afraid. All that being said, we truly appreciate the outpouring of interest about Shaintar, and I know that SPF finds it especially exciting. He cannot respond right now, however, as he is (or should be) locked away getting the finishing touches on what he needs to send in on Monday.

Don稚 let me squelch any speculation or enthusiasm. Once we get further along in the process, remind me of your outstanding questions, and we値l try to get them addressed as we move through the process. We may do a call for playtesters as well as we move forward, so familiarity with the setting and FC will be a big plus.

(Psssst, Agent Oni - thanks for that awesome show of support for the setting. When the time comes, it might be really cool to get more of your input for that FantasyCraft conversion thing we're chatting about. Can't say more, or Mister Preston will pour the red ants all over me again...)